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Bhul hoye gechche bilkul
   Aar shob kicchu bhaag hoye gechche
   Bhag hoy ni ko Nazrul
   
   In the twentieth century, after Rabindranath, Nazrul (1899-1976) is considered the most popular and talented poet of Bengal. His creative work has influenced Bengali thought and culture even though his creative span was for only 22 years. In the last thirty four years he suffered from an incurable disease which made him mute and disabled. His contribution was in many fields.
   He was a vocal revolutionary against British rule. He preached communal harmony. And above all he was a poet. But the evaluation of his total contribution is yet to be made. Interest is strong on Nazrul’s life and works in Bengal and Bangladesh. Recently, many researchers and intellectuals in West Bengal have started to gather material on various aspects of Nazrul and initiate various programmes and workshops.
   Every year on Nazrul’s birthday, West Bengal observes his birth anniversary through various cultural programmes, seminars, conferences, which aim to fulfill the expectations and nurture the interest of his fans. West Bengal government has published an anthology of Nazrul’s works which is a major step in understanding Nazrul and restoring his work.
   Kazi Nazrul Islam’s youngest daughter-in-law, Kalyani Kazi says, ‘He was an extremely colourful personality, charismatic and influential. We have not been able to gauge the extent of his contribution. But now in West Bengal, research and other activities on Nazrul has accelerated.  I hope
   that one day, we can give him his due acknowledgement.’
   ‘The popularity and expansion of Bengali classical song, is due to the songs of Kazi saheb, which is the best amongst all,’ believes eminent exponent Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty.  He thinks that Nazrul’s songs have various dimensions. Unless one has proper training, classical music background, knowledge of the nuances of Bengali language, it is not possible to sing Nazrul properly. Especially the spiritual songs of Nazrul, if not sincerely felt from within, lose their essence. That is why he believes, that to popularize and develop Nazrul’s work, we should organize workshops and the media should take a major role. His philosophy, his work, can be brought to the new generation through the help of the media. Those who sing Nazrulgeeti, must also think beyond singing, to the true dimensions of his philosophy. Music labels, cassette companies, should release more Nazrul songs to teach, and to increase his reach amongst the new generation.
   Eminent Nazrulgeeti exponent Dhiren Bose says, ‘Here, every year we celebrate Nazrul’s anniversary with sincere respect. All kinds of research continue.’ But, he feels that the melodies of Nazrul, suffer a lot due to misinterpretation. ‘A Board would be able to maintain a standard to regulate the notations and melodies. We should remember Nazrul throughout the year, not only on his birthday, through seminars, conference, research. The government and media should take an active role in this venture. Nazrul will then live on for the past and present generation.’
   Noted singer Susmita Goswami, of the young generation of Nazrulgeeti singers, admits that Nazrul is an inspiration. From childhood, she has been attracted to Nazrul’s songs, the variety of his tunes, kheyal to adhunik, baul to bhawaiya, kirtan to Islami, ghazal to children’s songs, the various precious gems of his collective works. Her emotions, her passions are enriched by her understanding of Nazrul sangeet. She has noticed that interest in Nazrul  and his songs has been on the increase.
   She performs Nazrul geeti regularly at various programmes, big and small, in and around Calcutta. His birth anniversary is observed by many organizers, government and private. Many channels are doing programmes, discussions on Nazrul. That is why she feels that we are remembering Nazrul everyday. ‘As a singer, I am proud to contribute in this process.’
   From the above comments from various personalities and celebrities, we can conclude that even though some believe that an evaluation of Nazrul I incomplete, the process is on. Apart from the academic research due him, and those happening to rediscover Nazrul, he remains one of the most lovable and popular poets of the two Bengals.
   The writer is the poet’s grand-daughter. She is presently the senior-most newscaster of TARATV

For centuries art had been celebrated as a manifestation of an abstract world depicting the essence of existence and was, therefore, seen as a product of subjective idealism. Then came the modernist view of ‘art for art’s sake’ followed by the philosophies of dialectical struggle which demystified creative productions by appropriating art as their tool for depicting man’s relation to himself and his society, and by speaking of it in objective and material terms. Still later we have the ‘deconstruction’ of a singular perspective of looking at art. Ultimately, it was the diversity of voices and perspectives which gained supremacy, thus promulgating a politically correct poetics of art.
   There is no getting away from the fact that art is contemplative knowledge. It is ontological in as far as it gives us a clearer picture of ourselves and of human existence in general. But then, art is not just a reflection on life, it is a mode of cognition which is extra-empirical and other worldly as it has no purposivity but to make subjectivity aware of itself. The question is: does this in any way militate with dialectical thinking which posits the rationale of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis as a continuous historical process truly representing the flow of human expression?
   It is our contention that works of art, though inherently subjective, have the ability to transcend the circumstances of the material conditions in which they are created by subjectively expressing their objective potential, albeit consciously or unconsciously.
   Works of art or creative expressions of life have to be seen as a flow of contradictions that come into being, develop, and are negated in order to generate new contradictions
   The European playwright Brecht intended that his ‘epic theater’ show emotions, ideas, and behavior as products of, or responses to, specific social situations and not as the unfolding of the human essence. The primary theatrical device of epic theater was intended to ‘estrange’ or ‘distance’ the spectator and thus prevent empathy and identification with the situation and characters and allow the adoption of a critical attitude toward the actions in the play.
   By preventing empathetic illusion or a mimesis of reality, epic theater would expose the workings of societal processes and human behavior, and would thus show the audience how and why people behaved a certain way in their society. For example, the greed in Mahagonny and The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage’s sufferings, or Galileo’s persecution, were to be understood as historically specific constituents of a social environment and the theater was to induce the spectator to reflect on why these events happened, thus providing the audience with better historical understanding and knowledge.
   The strategy was to produce an experience of curiosity, astonishment, and shock, raising such questions as: ‘Is that the way things are? What produced this? It’s terrible! How can we change things?’ Such a critical and questioning attitude was also fostered by a ‘montage of images’ and series of typical social tableaux that Brecht called ‘gests’. He wanted his spectators to work through these examples, to participate in an active process of critical thought that would provide insights into the workings of society, and to see the need for and to implement radical social change.
   Given these perspectives of art as a tool for social change, we need to evaluate the advent of Nazrul, in the literary scene of Bengal in the first half of the last century, as a maverick who cannot be typified. For some he is the ‘rebel poet’, while others speak of him as the quintessential ‘poet of love’, if not of the lover scorned. He spoke equally for Muslims, Hindus, men, women, love and revolt. He is at once the masculine voice:
   I am the mighty primordial shout!
   I am Bishyamitra’s pupil, Durbasha the furious,
   I am fury of the wild fire,
   I burn to ashes this universe
   and in the next instance the feminine cry:
   I am the trembling first touch of the virgin,
   I am the throbbing tenderness of her first stolen kiss
   Given the multitude of voices heard in Nazrul and the force of his critique of religiosity and politics, Nazrul was more post-modern than modern. He dared, too, to experiment with language, almost single handedly creating a language for the Muslims of Bengal by generously infusing his poetry with Arabic, and Urdu vocabulary.
   His early introduction to the folk forms of Bengali theatre is also visible in his liberal use of colloquial Bengali phrases. However, he remains immortal not for his innate ability to easily don the personas of both the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ but for his critique of the present, with the hope that from the ashes of discontent would rise the phoenix of hope and change.
   When the cry of the oppressed
   Will no longer echo through the sky and the air
   When the scimitars and the swords of the oppressor Will no longer battle in the grim battlefield –
   The rebel will then tire of battle.
   Only then shall I become quiet
   We see, be it in Brecht or in Nazrul, it is not just a representation and critique of reality but its ability to instigate introspection, which is open to the need for change, which characterizes the political correctness of art. Thus, it is not the content or form of art that makes it a significant experience but the questions it raises that gives it a special place amongst all of man’s productions.